The 10^th batch of the highly successful Hospital Management Program got off to a great start at the Sankara Nethralaya main campus on 22^nd August 2015. The genesis and milestones of Sankara Nethralaya and the Sankara Nethralaya Academy (TSNA) were detailed by Mr. A Mahalingam, Deputy Registrar, TSNA through an interesting talk and a virtual tour of both the institutions functioning under the visionary leadership of Dr. S.S Badrinath, Founder& Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya and Founder, Sankara Nethralaya Academy.

Dr. T.S. Surendran inaugurated the new session and addressed the students; he strongly underlined the need for professional healthcare administrators to be in symbiotic relation with doctors to run the health care sector whose demand for quality services at low costs is increasing, in a most effective manner.

TSNA the academic arm of its illustrious parent institution and world class eye care provider is committed to sharing the knowledge and experience of its parent institution to the students of its various courses to help in enhancing the overall functioning of the Medicare industry in the nation, by improving every one of its multiple facets.

The need for better and more professional management of hospitals and better healthcare delivery became imperative in view of greater awareness levels and rising expectations of patients and their families, entry of Indian and overseas players into the health care industry, India especially South India becoming a preferred healthcare destination of patients from all over the world and the disturbing increase and complexity of ailments.

The Sankara Nethralaya Academy launched its Weekend Certificate Course in Hospital Management program (CCHM) to primarily enhance the capabilities of healthcare professionals and to help them overcome the internal/external challenges and succeed in a tough marketplace.

The Objective of the program was to provide hospital management professionals with a broad perspective of the topics related to management with emphasis on better health care delivery.

The pedagogy and content of the CCHM program are health care specific and designed to address the concerns of hospital administrators / executives / supervisors and equip them with the knowledge required to increase effectiveness and efficiency.

The course is designed to increase the overall understanding of management issues and concepts by mid-level and senior managers to help them make well–informed decisions.

The course has since its first batch attracted mid and senior level professionals from small to high profile, multi-specialty hospitals and all of them have unilaterally found it to be of great relevance and purpose to their vocation and so far 196 healthcare executives from 200 organizations enrolled and passed this unique program

The course will be conducted over 12 weekends ( Saturdays – between 10 am to  1 pm) at the Sankara Nethralaya Main campus, College road, Chennai – 600 006)

The maximum number of students per batch has been kept at 15 – 20 to enable closer interaction and personalized, in- depth discussions between the faculty and students.

The Course was well received with senior management personnel like Directors, Medical Professionals, Management Executives from reputed healthcare institutions in the city enrolling in it.

The First week session on Effective Service Delivery was conducted by highly qualified and experience professional Prof Murali Subramanian, professor of healthcare marketing, Indian Institute of Knowledge Management (IIKM) and Visiting Management faculty to Sankara Nethralaya Academy, LIBA,etc.

The session was very lively and interactive with a good number of Participants contributing to the content of the session with their comments and personal experiences in their sphere of work.

The concept of customer service, profit chain and the benefits that would accrue to the organization when excellent customer care is rendered on were highlighted. Referrals, positive word of mouth, standing apart from the competition and increase in revenues were discussed.

Videos were shown on handling different types of customers such as an

• Angry customer
• Impatient customer
• Passive customer

Further a couple of short videos on bad customer service were screened and the participants were asked to comment on the deficiencies that they observed on the delivery of service. The golden rules of customer service were discussed. It was felt by all the participants that given the intensity of the competition prevailing in the health care sector, in addition to quality of care, the service levels are very important to drive patient footfall and if there are inadequacies in this area it will clearly reflect on the growth of the hospital.

All the participants were very happy with the quality of the workshop. The facilitator of the workshop asked the participants about their impressions on the workshop as they were his customers. All the participants gave an excellent feedback on the session and opined that they were delighted customers at the end of the session